Killing me softly

-Chapter 21.

Note; English isn't my main language! So I'm sorry if I made any mistakes, I hope you'll enjoy reading this story though!

Note2: And as promised, the second chapter in one day! I'm not sure how many chapters this story will get, since I'm not finished writing it yet. But there's at least 10 more chapters waiting to be uploaded and to be read. I'll upload them a.s.a.p. (:

Enjoy this chapter!

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Sharpay's POV.

When I woke up I still felt Troy's arms loosely wrapped around me, and it took me a while before I remembered what happened. My head started pounding slightly and I knew how it was going to be the start of a really bad hangover. Luckily it was weekend. But that didn't take away the memory of last night. It was.. weird how I just gave in like that, seeing as though I was still having troubles with my past. But I had to admit, last night had been amazing, and I had no second thoughts about it. Not at all. I actually felt kinda proud at myself, because it finally seemed like I moved on from what happened. And even though I started having this headache, I felt good. Happy. I smiled as I turned around to face Troy, who was still sleeping. Or pretending to be. I wasn't sure.

I don't know how long I've been staring at his gorgeous face. I still couldn't believe he was all mine. All because of a stupid memory, and look at where it had brought us.

After an hour or so he finally woke up too, and his blue eyes immediately locked together with mine once he was awake enough to realise I was still lying next to him. He smiled.

"Promise me you won't let me drink more than two glasses ever again." He said as he dragged a hand through his hair, which made him even more irresistable than he already was.

I giggled slightly. "If you never let me ask that kind of stupid questions again." I replied, thinking back of how insane it must've sound.

"I'm actually kinda glad you did.." He grabbed for my hand and played my fingers. He looked down for a while, and then back at me. "No regrets?" He asked, now sounding serious.

I shook my head, still smiling. "No regrets. Not at all. How about you?"

He shook his head too. "Neither do I. But it's more important for you to have no regrets.."

He paused. "I'm proud of you."

"Really? Why's that?" I asked shyly.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Just because I know what you've been going through the past few years. It must've taken a lot of time to trust me after what happened."

"Oh.. that.." I looked down. "Yeah.. It's been hard.. But you definitely proved yourself. I now know I don't have to be scared to get hurt by you.."

"I would never want to hurt you." He whispered back. And I believed him. I knew he meant everything he said, but this was one of the most important things he'd ever said to me. At least, it was for me. For so long, guys had been trying to hurt me. It was good to know that there was at least someone who didn't want to hurt me. And I don't know why I got all the luck to find him, but I did and I couldn't help but fall in love with him even more everytime he said something like that.

"I know that." I whispered back as I intwined our hands.

*

Sandra's POV.

I was awake early, too early for a Saturday. I had work to do anyways. After an hour dressing up and everything I went downstairs, grabbed my carkeys, tossed them into my purse and left the house. My phone started ringing halfway to where I was heading.

I sighed as I looked for my phone and tried to focus on the road in the meanwhile. "Damn it." I cursed as I couldn't seem to find it where I thought it would be. It had to be sómewhere. The ringtone started to get louder and louder. Annoying. I opened the zipper of my purse and finally found my phone. Why did I always forget where I left that stupid thing?

I flipped it open without looking at the callers-id and answered with a simple "Hello?", not caring to tell whoever was calling my name and all the other blah-blah stuff.

"Damn, it took you long enough to get that information." I answered annoyed after the explanation from the person on the other end of the line.

"What do you mean you can't give it to me? I ordered you to get it for me, and now you have it you can't even gíve it to me!?" I replied. I really needed to learn how to control my anger. I lost my temper way too easily. No wonder Troy always blew me off. But on the other hand, I had my reasons to be that way to him. I was his manager for God's sake! I had the right to decide over his concerts and everything about it. 'Just not about who his girlfriend was. And if he could even have a girlfriend.' I reminisced his words.

We'll see about that. I thought bitterly. I wasn't gonna let some so-called love of him screw this whole thing up, because I was sure what she was trying to do. All acting innocent, and so brokenhearted that she pretended to collapse. Sure, I was freaked out when it happened, and for a moment I actually thought she wasn't fooling around.. But the more I was thinking about it, the more stupid it sounded. She was just trying to steal his job from him and then she'd run away, leaving him on his own. Only that dumbass didn't realise that yet. He actually thought she loved him. He was falling for her trap and I knew I had to do something about it before it would be too late.

"As a matter of fact, I have the right to know. Didn't you hear that she's probably going to sign the label too? And that would mean she needs a manager, and oh, look at that! I'm a manager!" I said acting as if I really cared. Not. I just needed that information and I would crush that little brat. Till the bone. And there was no one who could stop me.

"Damn it, just stop the stupid talking already!" I exclaimed as I rolled my eyes to the person on the other end of the line. Not that he would see, but still. "Just gimme that information or I'll find out elsewhere!''

Still stuttering, he finally gave in.

"A FILE OF 85 PAGES!? Seriously?" I said in shock about the amount of information that I wanted to know so badly. "I'll be right over there. Ok, yeah. Bye.."

I hung up, excited. This was gonna be good. Really good..

*

Troy's POV.

Later that day I was at the recording studio, taking a break after pre-recording a few new songs. This was the first time I was recording songs without my manager. Where the hell was she anyways?! I didn't really care though, the less complaining from Sandra, the better. I wasn't really up for talking to her anyways. She'd just go on, and on and on about the things I messed up. Why didn't I just fire her when I had the chance?! Because I needed a manager. And even though I disliked Sandra (dislike was even far from what I thought about her), she did her job good. Most of the times. Sure, she was complaining about my relationship with Sharpay too much, but she also had her good sides. If she was in a good mood at least. And even though I didn't really need her, I dialed her number and waited for her to answer her phone. She picked up with a "Hello?", followed by a lot of background noise.

"Hey, where are you?" I asked as I tried to figure out by just listening to the background noise. I had no idea.

"What do you mean 'Where are you?'?! It's Sáturday." She sighed annoyed.

I sat there in disbelief, leaping my head into my free hand. "Since when does that make any difference? We would be recording today, and you said you'd be there."

Sandra cursed to herself. "Damn it, you're right. I totally forgot about that. I'm on my way."

"Where are you anyways? Seeing as though it isn't really quiet at wherever you're at I assume you're not home anymore?" I asked, curious to know.

"I..- Uhm..-" She stuttered. Why did she stutter? Didn't she want me to know? "I just needed to pick something up, but I'll be coming over straight after that, ok?"

I sighed deeply, annoyed by the tone in her voice. Bitter. Not that I wasn't used to her attitude, but it still annoyed me pretty often. I glanced at the clock.

"You know what, don't. We're halfway and by the time you finally get here we're done.'' I said, counting to ten and trying not to get angry again. She always got me mad somehow, if it wasn't about Sharpay then it was about work. I was getting sick of the fighting all the time. So maybe we should've just stopped at that point. But we didn't.

"No, I'll be there."

"San, as much as I appreciate it..-" I said, trying to sound nice, and like I really appreciated it. Which wasn't the case of course. "There's no need to anymore. I'll let you know how everything went."

Then I hung up on her. I hated how she always tried to get whatever she wanted, and it worked. Even if it didn't make sense at all. It was just stupid. I didn't even care enough to worry about it, so I went back into the studio and followed the instructions one of the recording-guys gave me. We were about to record a song I had been working about two weeks ago, together with someone from the label. This new label was amazing, they were open for new ideas and tried to get the best out of me by giving me instructions about how I could get even better. The label existed out of three people. Janice, the owner of the label, helped me alot since we agreed with the contracts. She was great. I felt pretty comfortable around her and she was really interested in my life besides all the glitter and glamour. She asked about how Sharpay was doing, since she was still interested in her, and I told her she was doing great. I told her about the problems we were having with Sandra, and how she didn't want to accept our relationship. She thought she was just scared of losing me as star. Janice was so much easier to talk to than Sandra, she would've been a better manager. That thought came up in my mind when I had been talking to her a few times, and I was considering to maybe ask her to do it. That'd mean I'd had to fire Sandra, but I was sure she was going to be fine. After all, we weren't really getting along and she got really annoyed with me lately. And vice-versa. So ditching her maybe wasn't even that bad of an idea.

*

Sharpay's POV.

"Gabs, come on. I really need something to wear and my wardrobe is so not up-to-date with the fashion at the moment.. I haven't got the time to go shopping for like two weeks! You know how hard that is for me, being a shop-a-holic? TWO FREAKING WEEKS!" I said in the phone. The words came out so fast I could barely keep up. I was standing in the middle of my huge walk-in-closet as I looked at myself in the mirror, I was still wearing my PJ's, even though it was around twelve. I seriously needed a new haircut. And a manicure. And a pedicure... The past weeks had been so busy I didn't even have the time to go on my usual shopping spree. And I was seriously longing to go past every shop at the mall, ready to try on everything I could find. I sighed as I listened to Gabriella complaining about how she didn't want to go to the mall since she had been there yesterday.

"Oh, give me a break. Since when do you reject shopping?"

"Can't you just borrow something from me instead?" Gabriella's voice sounded from the other end of the line. "What's the big deal anyways?"

"The big deal is that Í wanna go shopping today because I haven't seen a shop in like two weeks. And Í have to be somewhere tonight and since I haven't signed a label I don't get packages with clothes send to me." I hissed in an annoyed sigh, not understanding how she could possibly be oblivious to the emergency of this.

"But I thought we would hang out for a movie tonight?" She replied, disappointed.

"Yeah, that was before Troy asked me to go to the VMA's with him tonight." I said with a tone in my voice I didn't mean to let out. "I'm sorry, Gabs. That was mean. I'm just a bit stressed out.. But I couldn't say no to him.. you know.."

Gabriella stayed quiet for a while.

"Come on, are you mad at me now?"

Gabriella remained silent. After an awkward silence she sighed. "Not mad.. Just disappointed."

"We'll do it some other time. I promise. What about tomorrow?" I asked, hoping she would agree.

"I can't.. I'm gonna go bowling with Taylor. You could come with us if you want to?"

I swallowed. Things still weren't good with Taylor yet. Why did it hurt me to find out that Gabriella had other plans? I thought she always saw me as her best friend, not that treachorous Taylor. And now she chose hér over me?

"Shar?"

I shook my head, forcing myself to focus on my conversation with Gabriella. "Uhm.. No,.. I think I'll pass. Maybe some other time then?"

"Sure thing. I gotta go now. Tell me how the VMA's were!" Gabriella said.

I felt the excitement that I felt earlier returning. Tonight was gonna be great. I smiled. "I will. Talk to you later." I replied as I hung up.

And then another thought came back into my head; I stíll hadn't got Gabriella to go to the mall with me. I dialed her number again.

"What?" Gabriella's voice answered.

"I still need you to go shopping with me today." I said. Gabriella groaned, but before she could say anything I interrupted her.

"Pléáse, I need someone to tell me if I look good." I begged her. "And I'll buy you a new outfit!"

"Fine! I'm going with you!" Gabriella exclaimed.

I laughed at her sudden outburst. "Thanks, Gabs.''

I could almost imagine her rolling her eyes at this moment. "Yeah, better get me the most expensive outfit ever."

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A/N; It takes hours to write a story, yet seconds to review! (: